Painful experiences are often part of life and death situations. Pain will always be assigned the highest value in the brain because it threatens survival of the organism. The brain will continue to process the pain as long as it is present. The problem with this is that it robs our bodies of critical energy needed to sustain and live a full life. Rather than suppress the pain, the person has to learn to reject it as an option and to expect the brain to make adjustments to itself to restore comfort, well-being and pleasure.

The pain is meant to get our attention. It shouts at us and says, ‘Do something about this now! Oppose this and reject this at every turn or it will rob you of your life energy!’ Say no with every fiber of your being. Seek and find ways to stop it, to soothe it, to force it out of your body, your brain, your life. It is that critical. It is when we succumb to the damning thoughts that it is inevitable, that it is something we will just have to live with, something that wins out over us and our will, that we eventually die with it little by little. We must make our own brains understand this persistent pain for what it is. We have to make ourselves aware that this type of pain isn’t the same as the pain that is an immediate threat to survival. We have to process this pain in the higher centers, not the fight-flight processing centers, to be able to overcome it. It is only the persistence of pain and the chronicity of processing it that eventually threatens life. Instead, use your pain to trigger the most intense survival instinct within you and make the decision to banish it and to live, truly live. Tell your brain that you refuse to let pain become who you are.